You say Xavier, I say EX-avier

Fresh off the election of his father Krudd (Kevin Rudd) as Prime Minister of Australia. Xavier Rudd (Xrudd) performed a concert in Fremantle last night. The place was jam packed with people .... and the marijuana was floating around. I think I got completely stoned and didn't even touch the stuff... just like Ross Rebagliatti .... it was either that, or I was just really hungry and sleepy .... The highlight was watching the security guards drag the offenders out of the crowds. I'd never heard of Xrudd, but he's really big here, and supposedly in Canada as well. He's a really good vocalist, and performed about 5 or 6 instruments. I struggle to just play one .... the ukulele. He was really anti John Howard, which is pretty obvious with the last name Rudd.

Other interesting facts about Xrudd: He doesn't wear shoes .... ever ! ..... ewwwww, I don't think i want to see the bottoms of his feet. He grew up in Torquay (tor-kay), Victoria. This fact alone makes me his new #1 fan as I went to Torquay Elementary School in a different kind of Victoria!!!!

A quiet Friday night here full of laundry and cleaning .... my sister Laura, and her husband JP are arriving to Perth for a one month tour of Australia on Sunday. I am looking forward to seeing family again. They will spend a week here, before heading to other parts of the country. I will then meet them in Sydney for Christmas and New Years.

Meekatharra Revolutions

A Willy Willy

Well I did another trip to Meekatharra. This time it was just a quick two nighter because the drillers hadn't finished in time during the last trip. They also said they had struck exactly what we were looking. So I headed all the way back, just to discover that they don't know what they are talking about. Talk about a waste.

Not much exciting from this trip. It was much much cooler, only about 37 / 38 C this time. The highlight of the trip was being in the middle of a "Willy Willy". It wasn't quite as extreme as the photo above, but it shows up out of nowhere. We step out of the LandCruiser, and noticed a slight breeze, as we walked out a bit further it picked up. "Nice wind, it's blowing the flies away" [there were still thousands of flies]. Then the winds really picked up and a piece of paper blew out the LandCruiser door. The fieldie raced to close the doors, while I watched this paper to see where it would blow to. I did not expect to blow almost completely vertical, with a spiral flow. Pretty soon it was so far up in the air that we lost it. I'm guessing well over 500m to 1 km high, and it just kept going as it was trapped in it. I'm just glad it wasn't my hat that blew away.....

My other big event in Meeka was discovering that something was in my toilet on monday. It was large, and moved very quick; it went "under" before i could get my eyes on it. My best guess was cockroach or frog. Anyhow, the next day, and after a few "flushes" (props to it for surviving a couple of them ;)..... I saw it just sitting on the rim, and yes it was a frog. Tried to get a photo, but it was camera shy.

That was the excitement. Then back to Meekatharra:
Jon: Hi, my name is Jon, I'm on the flight
Airport Staffer: Ok Jon, place your bag on the scale, Do you have any dangerous goods or weapons?
Jon: Nope
Airport Staffer: Ok, see you on the plane
You aren't even given a boarding pass .... gotta love outback security ..... :)

___________________________________

Back to Perth, I had a taxi driver tell me he was going to show me something I've never seen before. He said, he knew a building that was built like a sheep. I was quite excited, as this is not New Zealand. Anyway, he showed me the building, and I was really upset, as it looked absolutely nothing like a sheep. Still he insisted, a sheep, a sheep, a big sheep. That's when I realized that for the last 10 minutes he had been talking about SHIPS.... oh my ... talk about lost in translation.... I'm still learning Australian

I hit up City Beach for a bit and met up with Matt after he finished work. Then spent the afternoon getting tossed around by giant waves. Now I'm paying the price as salt water keeps coming out of my nose whenever I lean over.....

or is it clear blood????

Oh yah ..... Australian Idol winner was Natalie .... the show went on way too long, and I just looked it up on the internet, and then went to bed ....

and the winner is .......

Kevin Rudd and Labour Party. Yadda Yadda Yadda, John Howard didn't even get elected to his own seat ....

Now to the more pressing debate ..... Who will win Australian Idol??? I've got to admit, these two were both my favourites from the start. One is a 26 year old fiery Italian hottie from Melbourne. The other is the 17 year old overally sensitive boy that that has eyes that could melt gold. Natalie Gauci vs Matt Corby.

Nat Vs Matt.

Who will win?

Video highlights below:

Natalie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUM5QTUbW5U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alb4qr77HXk

Matt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EVxzcYKCEs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCQkPJ1vhho

Australia Votes

Today is a big day for Australia ..... it's National Election Day. It's been interesting following the Aussie Politics. The current government is the Liberals (lead by Prime Minister John Howard), and the favourite to win are the Labour Party (lead by Kevin Rudd). My first week that I arrived in Australia saw the breaking of a news story that Kevin Rudd went to a New York strip club about 5 years ago. This isn't America, so needless to say, Kevin Rudd's (who I've nicknamed Krudd) popularity went through the roof!!!!

John Howard has been Prime Minister since 1996, and is running for his 5th term in office. Strangely, he's going to run, but then pass the prime minister torch to another politician in a year or two. People haven't appreciated that gesture. Howard isn't the most well-liked individual as he is pretty buddy/buddy with president bush. Also, a couple weeks ago, he went on tv to say "sorry" about a rise in interest rates. The next day, he went on tv to admit that his "sorry" was not actually an apology and that he wasn't going to apologize for the interest rates...... I always thought sorry was an apology????

Funniest things about each candidate:

John Howard: Mr Sheen (http://www.101usesforajohnhoward.com/2007/10/23/84-mr-sheen/)

Kevin Rudd: Eargate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnMPLvYTVs8) .... maybe the grossest thing i have EVER seen

Polls suggest that Rudd will win in a landslide .... but I'm more interested in who gets more votes for Australian Idol tomorrow.

___________________________________________________

I went swimming at Cott beach this morning .... with my new goggles .... there was a water polo incident that shattered my old pair. It was sad to see them go :(

Out with the Old, In with the Nucleus

Because my field hat wasn't fitting me anymore, and because I'm heading back to Meekatharra on Monday, I decided to get a small trim at the barber shop. Small meaning first haircut since early July. It's nice to have the shorter hair in the summer here, however, my ears and neck have yet to be exposed to this powerful sun (UV index = 11 .... and I thought it ended at 10). It was a refreshing change as we are now getting temps in the mid 30's in Perth. It's still a month away from summer!

In other exciting news..... a couple nights ago I came across the first hockey I've seen here. Some blokes were playing on a patio down at Cottesloe Beach. They were using those plastic fruit baskets as nets. I asked them where I could find a hockey stick, and it turns out that one of them works at the only store you can buy them at. I will have to make the trip to find that store....

Also, while talking to those hockey guys, I met my first American in Perth. Which is a little strange as I've probably run into about 20 Canadians etc here. The story goes: They asked why I was interested in hockey, and I said, "well I'm Canadian". They point to the girl who was watching them "so is she!!!!". I ask her "Really, where are you from?". "I'm actually from the US, but people think it's cooler if I say I'm from Canada" .... too funny.

I subbed in for a beach volleyball team last night. In my entire life, I've never played people more inept at volleyball than the team we played against. One woman would basically just throw her arms into the air and hope she hit it. One of the dudes would bump the ball like he was trying to lift an oversized box. There poor performance actually rubbed off on our team, and we narrowly beat them. I think there was one rally where the ball went over the net 4 times.

Cereal Blog #7 - Mini-Wheats

Kellogg's Mini-Wheats ..... mmmm, mmmm, one of my favourite cereals..... wait a minute .... Australia only has Whole Grain Mini-Wheats. There is the "good for you" wholegrain side, featuring: triticale, oats, barley, wheat, and rye. However, there is also the same serious taste on the other side. Where's the fun-loving sugary side. I want my choice of Brown Sugar or White Sugar. I want to be able to soak them in milk, and pick the sugar coating off with my teeth and throw the rest in the garbage. It's like baking a cake, but not putting icing on it, or saying you have a mullet, but without the party at the back!

When I eat my Mini-Wheats.... I feel like a part of me is missing....

The fun side :*(

Evening at Swanny and Cott

After a tough day that involved, golfing, biking, swimming, and biking, I decided to go on another bike trip down to the coast for sunset at Swanbourne and Cottesloe beaches. It amazes me that it just keeps getting more and more spectacular each day. What will tomorrow bring ... oh yah .... work. Photos below (for more click here):

Crazy Art thing

Jacque enjoying the view

North Cott Beach

Footsteps to paradise

The Great Wall(ter) of Sand

Jon

Big Time Waves

Kite Surfing at Sunset

SUNSET!!!!

3-month Anniversary

Cities that have visited my site...

Wow, I can't believe I've been in Australia for 3 months. That's almost 1/4 of a year. I thought I might take this moment to say a few things about the website http://www.australialiterally.blogspot.com/ . I started tracking the site in mid-september after finally figuring out it was possible. Since then, there have been 814 visits by 112 different visitors. Not bad..... almost to a thousand.


In terms of Countries, Canada dominates with 689 visits, Australia is next at 73, followed by the USA at 17. Almost all of Europe has visited my site .... countries that is. These include: UK, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, Portugal, Estonia, Romania, Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, France and Finland. Interestingly, there have been no African or Asian visitors to the site yet .... what am I doing wrong???

There was a heated battle for top city a couple months ago, but Vancouver has taken over with 370 visits, compared to Victoria at 254. 3rd place goes to Perth (51), and 4th to Burnaby(23).

86% of the visitors use Windows .... a whopping 14% use Macs. Who's cooler now??

About 15% of visitors access the site through google. There are some interesting "Keywords" that people use to find the site. Below is a list of them:

• Australia Literally (66 times)
• Australia Literally Blogspot (34)
• Meekatharra (4)
• "Saltana Bran" "Raisin Bran" (1) .... someone really likes Bran (Uncle Dave?)
• "Tara Moss" (1)
• boom boom room victoria bc facebook ..... some creepy stalker dude
• cereal blogs (1) ..... SUCCESS!!!
• fall back kids daylight savings (1)
• half-flush toilet australia (1)
• how are weet bix made (1) .... someone was very curious ... how are they made?
• hungry jacks circle of life (1) .... how do people come up with these searches?
• jon boyd bc hydro australia (1) .... Frank?
• justin timberlake golfing in australia (1) ..... JT.... gotta love him
• keanu (1) ..... Pop Quiz Hot Shot, you are going to be disappointed, what do you do, what do you do?
• khaki man (1) .... Carv can you believe someone typed this in ... or was it you?
• meekatharra airport dangerous (1) ..... that story is for another time...
• meekatharra train timetable (1) .... didn't know that meekatharra had a train ???
• transperth (1)
• two scoops raisin bran myth (1) ..... hahhahaha, the cereal continues ........
• and my personal favourite to finish .......
• Tim Horton Timatin (1) ..... you had to be in Montreal with me and my brother for that one. This person spent a good 1 minute 3 seconds on the site. 5th highest of the searches, they must have been happy.

I can't wait to see some new "searches" ..... Well that's all I have to say about that ....

Rottnest Weekend!

Fresh from 10 days in the Outback, I headed 20km west from the coast to Rottnest Island "Rotto". I went with 8 others .... with me being the "9th Wheel". If there is such a thing. Anyway, keeping things simple.... Rotto is the GREATEST place I have ever been in my entire life. Why you ask (click for PHOTOS!!!):

• No cars anywhere (except for a few buses) ... so you have to bike everywhere. The island is about 10 km long, and about 4-5 km wide. Jacques and I had a great time.
• The beaches and coves and bays were EXTRAORDINARY!!!!! The beaches in Maui bow down to these things. They were absolutely breathtaking. And there were hundreds of them. You could go to popular ones, wavey ones, coral rich ones, secluded ones .... any beach possible.
• Did someone say Quokkas!!!! These little mini kangaroos sort of look like big rats that hop. But they are the CUTEST things I have ever seen in my entire life!

Some other big highlights of the trip:

• I headed off early and took the train downtown and caught up with the group at the Jetty in the perth for the start of the cruise.
• Everyone brought there bikes and we spent a lot of the time riding around, causing trouble, running quokkas/children off the road. We called ourselves the BMX Bandits. After a Nicole Kidman movie from 1983.
• Crazy drunk/drugged Irish guy did backflips off the dock with his Irish girly. They then brought out the old drunk guys to jump into the water as well. It was good times. Check out the pics.
• Was in the water at Parker Point when we looked onto the beach to see a blonde using a Canadian Flag Towel to cover her chest as she took off her top. I've never been so proud of my country. I instantly broke into "Oh Canada" and tears poured from my eyes.
• I had a quokka practically climb up onto my lap.... I just about cried because it was so damn cute.
• Irish girly made a visit to our cabin .... at 3am!!!! that was after the party next door had broken up. I woke up at 2am to "We are the Champions!!!" ... I of course broke out into song with them. There were also a lot of "F" this and "F" that. Anyhow, the Irish girly wanted to sleep in our cabin on the couch.... which would have meant she was sleeping with me!!!!
• There were 6 beds in the cabin, 9 people. We tried the old "tallest people can't sleep on cotts" ... I even brought out my horror story of being trapped in a cott that closed on me for 3 hours. Anyway, we had a draw .... and the 3 tallest guys got the cotts!!!! Yeah, 1 was sleeping in the kitchen, the other in the hall, and me in the living room. I still have bruises in my hips and lower back.
• The BMX Bandits (minus 2) rolled off the boat in Fremantle (we decided not to go to perth) and we hit the road. It was great, this time instead of running quokkas/children off the road, cars/trains were running us off the road!!!!

Anyhoo .... It was a great great great great weekend. Now some sleep .... in a normal bed!!!

A freight in Freo

The BMX Bandits

Parker Point

Thomson Bay

Crazy Irish Guy Jumping into the water

This guy was on more than just alcohol ... this was taken seconds after he tried to kick our volleyball. The only thing he did kick, was his own ass.

Quokka on the run!

Oh my god!!!!! CUTEST PHOTO EVER!!!!. The quokka practically was jumping on my lap. He was my soulmate!

Secluded Cabin near a salt lake

Carl diving into "The Basin"

3 of the 9 BMX Bandits ... Sam, me and Holly

Meekatharra Reloaded

Meekatharra Reloaded ….. some of the highlights (& lowlights) of 10 days in the bush at temperatures hovering in the low 40’s!!!! (in point form …. I’m getting tired of sentence and paragraph structure):

• I watched an emu run straight into a wire fence .... with humourous results
• I had my first kangaroo .... FOR DINNER!!!! It's just a chewy version of steak. Not bad. Very lean, and no fat.
• 6am start one day, not wakeup but start. Got to see my first Outback sunrise! It was good .... but not great.
• We chased 3 sheep and 1 lamb (not on purpose) down the road in the landcruiser. The lamb tripped and fell, and then one of the sheep bailed overtop it. They both struggled to get up.... them BAMMM. They both got on their feet and ran off.
• One night, watched an Australian Quiz show in the pub and the question was "This person was born in Victoria British Columbia, Canada ......" The answer turned out to be Tara Moss .... she went to my high school!!! Therefore, I am cool….
• Got to see a few more cool animals (dingo, bungarra…. etc)
• Sinead O ‘Connor Karaoke in the Landcruiser. “Nothing compares 2 u”
• Participated in “Chase the Ace” bar game, in which one person gets to draw cards. If they get the Ace of Spades, they win $4000. There was an incident where I heard “70” and thought I WON …. But in actual fact it was “17” … Still have trouble understanding the Australian language.
• Had a CDN moment in a crowded pub on Friday night. Went with 3 straight BA songs. I had to ask everyone to “Please Forgive Me”, because “Everything I do, I do it for you” … haven’t you “Ever really really really really” wanted to listen to BA.
• Holy Crikey!!!! Hearing “Never in 15 years of fieldwork….” and “In 10 years of drilling, I’ve never seen flies this bad” from the more experienced workers is not a good sign. I’ve almost gone completely insane. There have been times when I’ve looked down at my hands and had about 40-50 flies on each of them. I’d say there were probably 1000 within 5 cm of my body. Buzzing, and climbing all over you in desperate search of any bodily fluid. I went to the grocery store, and the mosquito nets were sold out. What are the odds! But there were food covers!!! So I did a little scissor work, and will now look like a bride getting ready to walk down the aisle. Except the aisle of the church is a dusty road in the Outback. And instead of a groom waiting …. I have 1000 little bugs. Yeeeaaahhh!!!
• One great thing about being here for so long. I decided to get a few Cereal snackpacks. Kellog’s!!! Now most of the cereals have actually already been blogged about already;
• However, some new ones:
  Frosted Flakes = Frosties … and bizarrely there is no frosting on them. Theeeeeyyyy’rrrrrrr not Grrreeaaattt!
  Froot Loops – appeared a bit more sugary
  Special K – bigger than the Canadian version, and doesn’t have that crackly sound
• Had my first view of a DEADY Australians spider in a sample bag. The White Tail Spider. Crikey!
• There may have been an appearance by Keanu Reeves. Pop Quiz Hot Shot …It’s 45 Celsius, and you have no water, What do you do? What do you do?
• Took part in my first true outback Australian Barbie!
• Had a different kind of Remembrance Day Ceremony. We attempted 1 minute of silence, but the flies didn’t do a very good job complying.
• Wow, it actually rained for a couple minutes.
• I decided to give up the 3+ weeks of beard growth, and went with a Handle Bar moustache. I was quickly given the nickname Chopper, as there was an infamous Hitman named Chopper Read in Melbourne who had similar facial hair. The nickname then morphed into Chopper Five as that was my room number. I would pound my chest and then give a weather report from “Chopper Five” …. "It’s going to be hot today in Meekatharra”.
• There was an interesting show from one of the locals one morning. It began at 7:30 as he walked into the Corner Store, arms raised, and “Roaring”. He then crouched down, turned towards me and “Hissed”. Very similar to what Misty (childhood cat) used to do. He then checked around the store a bit, before making eye contact with me again. He then started doing some random punches, kicks, and then The Crane (Karate Kid move). At this point, the owner of the store says “If you are going to act like a F@#!ing Idiot, then get the F@#! Out of my store!!!!!!”. He quickly left. Rumours were he was on Petrol. Very very very funny.
• One night one of the driller’s offsiders took offence to something that was said by my coworker. Actually conversation is as follows:
  Him: “Dude, you gotta tell me what room he’s in, I’m going kick his ass”
  Me: “Sorry man, I can’t six say, what room six he’s in, that would six, just go against six work ethics. Room Six”
  Him: “Oh man, come on, you gotta tell me, I’m so “bleeping” mad. He dissed me man, he dissed me. What room is he in”
  Me: Sixry … I mean sorry, I six can’t say man. If six, you went to room six, and beat him six up. I’d get six in trouble, room six.”
  Him: “Shit man, just tell me”
  Me: “Six … I just six can’t say, you’ll have to six, find out six what room six he’s in from six someone else.”
  Him: “Fine, I’ll find out from someone else”
  Can you tell alcohol might have been involved ….. let’s just say, he didn’t show up to work the next morning.
• Finally, brought out the Don Boyd look for the final day.

mmmm mmmm .... my first kangaroo

CSI: Australia .... who ate that kangaroo?

Viewing my first dingo

A bungarra

Stop bugging me!!!

Cereal Funpack

Homemade bug net

Killer spider in the sample bag!!!

A willy willy

Chopper Five

the "Don" Boyd look

The Race That Stops A Nation

Today was Melbourne Cup day!!! You might think "horse race? who the heck cares about that?". Well, I will tell you that EVERY SINGLE AUSTRALIAN does. I'm not really sure there is anything to compare it to back home. There is the same buzz in the air that you would have when Canada plays in the Olympic Golf Medal game, but this happens every year. The amount of work done on this day would probably be equivalent to the work done on Christmas. People are more focussed on how they can get the fanciest hat or which hand to use to drink champagne and which to use to cheer.

Me pulling out my picks from a sample bag

Our office had conducted a pool, and I ended up with three horses #13 Lazer Sharp, #22 Eskimo Queen, and #23 Princess Coup. I had high hopes for my Eskimo and my Princess. Also thought the 23 would be lucky for me!

Most offices have a big catered Melbourne Cup party / lunch. But not ours. 3 of us just ended up going to a co-workers house, broke out the champagne/hats and cheered on the race. A rather surprising win by Efficient upset a lot of people who went with the favourites Purple Moon, and Master O'Reilly.

This was the jockey of Princess Coup ... no wonder why he lost

Other good horse names were: Dolphin Jo and Blutigeroo. Maybe Better will maybe be better next time as he pulled up lame. The race had a bit of a french flare to it as one horse was named On A Jeune = They Have Young Person. Princess Coup can also be translated to Princess Blow .... which is exactly how Princess performed in the race today.

Me sad that my horses lost ... also wearing a rather Mexican looking hat

Well another Truly Australian Moment can be crossed off the list. Also, should be noted that I finally threw some "'Shrimp on the Barbie'' on Saturday. What will be next? Maybe a little tossing of the boomerang? or how about Christmas on the beach? ..... heading to Meeka again tomorrow for 10 days. Back Nov 16. Before heading to Rottnest Island for a couple days. I will try to get online at some point in Meeka, but no guarantees. I do have some good news. My 7am flight tomorrow was delayed til 11 .... wahoo .... sleep in time!

Cereal Blog #6 - Milo

Mmmmm, mmmmm, Milo. What happens when you mix chocolate, with cereal, with milk, add a little chocolate? You get Nestle's Milo, the Nutritious ENERGY cereal. Something tells me that cereals that have there own chocolate bars, and powdery milk drinks aren't the most nutritious in the world. However, taste wise, Milo is amazing. You start out with a big bowl, and by the end you just have chocolate milk. It's 2 for the price of 1. Warning! Do not try to fill the bowl with the same left over milk from the first. You may create the most Choc-tastic drink you will every experience.

In day to day news..... I've really begun to integrate into Australian culture. By that I mean I have taken up swimming. People who know me well know that I could swim about 20 metres before gasping for air, and screaming for my life. Today, I went for 1.35 kilometres --- with some help from flippers ;). For the first time, I got to a point where my entire lower body shut down from cramps. My feet, my ankles, my calves, my quads, my hamstrings all went numb and screamed in pain. At that moment four Staffers started yelling at me. "wow, they can tell I'm struggling .... Lifeguards are amazing!". Nope, they wanted me to swim to them, and then dive down to search for a woman's ring. Let's just say, I didn't have much success, as I was more worried about staying above water than finding something at the bottom.

.

Tomorrow is the Melbourne Cup!!! A big horse race. Victoria (Australian State that Melbourne is in) actually shuts down and has a stat holiday for the event. Not bad. Unfortunately Western Australia does not either, but it's supposed to be a good show. I will update you on the happenings tomorrow. Hopefully there will be a work pool.

Red Bull Air Race

Today I biked to South Perth where the Red Bull Air Race was happening. It was the final stop in the World Tour of Red Bull racing. Other sites include: USA, Brazil, Portugal, UK, Hungary, and Switzerland. It was pretty crazy. The pilots are absolutely amazing. I have trouble dribbling a soccer ball around cones, and these guys were flipping, twisting, and turning at 400 km/hr. My favourite part was when they would freeze the plane going straight up, and then do about 10 spins. Very cool. The weather continues to get nicer and nicer. It was Sunny sunny sunny and got up to about 30 C. I went through a lot of water on the bike! The rest of the weeks forecast is 31, 25, 24, 24, 25, 27, 28. Luckily I go to Meekatharra during those 24C days. Good to miss that cold spell.